Remember payphones and letters?

Technology moves forward — sometimes slowly, sometimes by leaps and bounds — and before long some of the things we used to do are rapidly fading in the rear-view mirror.

It brings to mind a line from an old Joni Mitchell song that goes, “Don’t it always seem to go, that you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone?” In Joni’s case, she was clearly lamenting good things that had gone by the wayside.

But as a consumer, I’m not so sure I miss some of this stuff that’s disappearing.

Let’s start with phone booths. When was the late time you even saw a phone booth? And how about those payphones we used to see mounted on the outer walls of liquor stores and virtually every other kind of business? There are still a few of ‘em around — but not many.

Nope, these days we’re all using cell phones — and in many cases, smartphones. And let’s be honest here: A smartphone is really a small computer that also happens to function as a phone. It seems that everybody’s got one. They’re using them to look up directions, find phone numbers and even secure movie tickets.

Now let’s have a show of hands here. Does anyone really want to go back to those days when we had to pull into a greasy, run-down gas station and pick up a payphone that reeked of alcohol? A phone that was likely just used by a drug dealer looking to score it hit?

And while we’re on the subject of phones, how about phone books? Used one lately? Didn’t think so. These days we’re going online for nearly all of our phone numbers and addresses.

And continuing on this information track ... how about maps and the iconic Thomas Guide? When’s the last time you whipped one of those out? I can still remember trying to chart my directions using a Thomas Guide. Invariably, I’d have to switch to another page to see where the road I needed to take was going. I miss that about as much as I miss Barry Manilow’s last album.

Rand McNally still produces spiral-bound Thomas Guides, which is kind of surprising. But they also offer a bunch of GPS navigation devices.

Here’s another one. When’s the last time you wrote a letter and mailed it to someone? More importantly, you do ever write in cursive anymore? Probably not much, if at all. These days most of our communication is done via texts or emails.

That’s good because there’s nothing more rewarding than emailing a message that is so devoid of grammar it resembles a cryptic funeral notice from the ancient Greeks.

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And photos? Remember the days when you took photos and had to drop the film off at the local drugstore? No more. Now the photos we take show up instantly on our cameras. And the shots we take on our smartphones are often better quality than we used to get with a standard camera.

Lastly, I want to mention libraries. Now hold your water because I can already feel the ground shaking as hard-core readers dig in their heels. I’m not saying libraries are going away. But their role has definitely expanded to include computers, e-books, automated cataloging systems and more space for community events.

Some libraries even have 3D printers and scientists say we’ll eventually be able to create living organs with those devices. I can hear the conversation now:

“Yes, I’d like to check out the latest Stephen King novel ... and I’ll take a kidney with that, please.”